Tobacco company targets "smoke-free world"

Spotted on the Philip Morris International website:

We are currently seeking a highly-qualified econometrician to join our international Corporate Affairs Research and Strategy team in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As part of our efforts to advance a smoke-free world [my emphasis], we are looking for a candidate to help us better understand, quantify, and model the impact of various fiscal and regulatory policies on adult smoker conversion to RRPs [Reduced Risk Products] as well as develop relevant socio-economic impact models.

The successful candidate will work closely with colleagues in Corporate Affairs and Research & Development ...

Words fail me. Almost.

Last year I concluded a short speech at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Bologna by saying:

The bottom line is, most consumers want choice and the freedom to choose between a wide range range of tobacco and non-tobacco vapour products.

It's up to industry and regulators to accept and meet that demand and put the consumer first. So my message to the tobacco industry, as it's been every year I've attended GTNF, is this:

Embrace harm reduction, embrace e-cigarettes, embrace other new technologies including heat not burn and others that have yet to be invented, but don't forget who your core customer is.

There are enough groups trying to marginalise and stigmatise smokers. The last thing they need is the tobacco industry turning its back on the millions of adult consumers who enjoy smoking and don't want to quit.

For the record, Forest last received a donation from Philip Morris in 1997. Call me psychic but I don't think we'll be getting another one any time soon!

PS. Just read the job details in full. Under 'PMI is an Equal Opportunities Employer' it says:

PMI is also committed to sustainability across our entire business ... Our commitment to sustainability is not complete without first reflecting, and acknowledging, the societal harm caused by our products. This is why we are leading a full scale effort to ensure that cigarettes are ultimately replaced in society [my emphasis]. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com.

Funnily enough I've been a minor cheerleader for heat not burn technology, including PMI's Iqos system, on the basis that it appears to offer a halfway house between combustible and electronic cigarettes while staying faithful to consumers who want to consume tobacco.

I would happily encourage people to switch from combustible to heat not burn or electronic cigarettes if that's their choice, and I likewise support every attempt to develop less harmful nicotine delivery devices that satisfy existing smokers.

What concerns me is the language. A "full scale effort to ensure that cigarettes are ultimately replaced in society" is the sort of target you expect public health fanatics to set.

If the aim is to put every effort into developing a range of non-combustible products that smokers enjoy as much as cigarettes, allowing them to switch with equanimity, fine.

For smokers however a "full scale effort to ensure that cigarettes are ultimately replaced in society" conjures up a more illiberal scenario involving coercion, restrictions and further heavy-handed regulations designed to force consumers to switch or quit cigarettes completely.

I appreciate the fine line a company like PMI is treading because I'm sure the goal is not to prohibit smoking but to encourage and manage an orderly transition from combustible cigarettes to non-combustible products without losing too many customers en route.

The problem is, if they come across as 'anti-smoking' and are unwilling to support adults who continue to smoke (because they enjoy it), the long-term impact on consumer relations is anyone's guess.

At risk of repeating myself, the key issue is choice. Whatever the health risks, smoking tobacco is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.

If PMI's goal is a "smoke free world" in which cigarettes have been completely replaced by non-combustible products that's their prerogative, but it won't happen in my lifetime nor, I imagine, in my children's lifetime.

In the meantime what does it say about PMI's commitment to freedom of choice and the rights of millions of consumers who smoke their products that they are actively endorsing a "smoke free world"?

As someone commented on Forest's Facebook page, it's like a big brewer pursuing an alcohol free world.

Good luck with that!